21 - Colegio NUEVA GRANADA

math
a good year for
olympics by: Rita Wilson
Math Coordinator 6th-12th Grade
primary level finishes
first in Colombia
dThis year was a record year for Math Olympics participation in
Colombia. One hundred forty-four schools with five thousand two
hundred students participated in the competition. Of the initial
total only five hundred forty of those Colombian students classified
for the second round. CNG students made up 25 of those students
classifying for the second round.
At the Primary Level there was a maximum of six hundred points
possible for the contest. CNG 6th grader Kiho Park scored four hundred
and forty points to place second. His teammate, fourth grader,
Jiho Park finished seventh, followed by Alejandro Castellanos,
seventeenth and Bernardo Cardenas finishing nineteenth. The
team total won CNG first place in Colombia at the Primary Level.
As a fan of math and everything “mathy”, I’ve participated in
Math Olympics every year while I was at CNG. For me, they were
challenging and rewarding occasions that allowed me to befriend
others and learn more math. In all honesty, they were fun, especially
those in which the CNG students as a team would compete
against the other best schools in Colombia, and I wouldn’t change
these experiences for (almost) anything else. What can I say? I like
math, I like Math Olympics, and I thank the school for the opportunities
it has given me in these things.
Jae Gyoung Oh
High School Student
Jack Akerman
High School Student
Although it is not an activity that many are willing to do, it is such
a great thing, that I will do anything to be able to participate in
this wonderful event. There are so many different activities and
types of competitions that you always like something and there
are so many ways of participating in this.
The individual Math Olympics have four rounds, which get harder
as you progress. The first and second round are taken at school, and
this is not just a national competition, it is a competition against
your friends, but most importantly, yourself. By solving at least
one problem, you feel that you have accomplished something. At
the end of the competition you’ll begin to argue with your friends
about which were the correct answers. The best thing is that you’ll
get a cheese stick and a small juice box to recover your brainpower.
Then, the 3rd round takes place at Antonio Nariño University.
They line the desks in long rows and organize you alphabetically.
This exam is usually the same for all of the levels, but the scoring
works different. By then, you’ll walk to the bakery at the corner,
while you argue with your mates, and buy a baguette, a croissant,
or even a guava filled sweet bread. It is just delicious.
For me, the best Math Olympics test is the group test. Each school
that qualified (schools qualify depending on their score and other
schools’ scores) builds a team of five participants, from their top
ten list, which will compete with other schools for the 1st place. The
first place winner will be the only one that will be able to go to the
final group round (this year in Barranquilla). There are 3 types of
questions: Crossnumber, 90 seconds, and relays. The Crossnumber
is practically a crossword, but with numbers. You try to fill in the
most squares, and at the end you just end up putting random numbers
(one digit) into random squares, since there is a limited time,
20 minutes. Then, come the 90 seconds, which are a set of problems
in which a team choses a problem (usually 1 - 14) and they have 90
seconds to solve it. If they aren’t able to answer it correctly, the next
team has ten seconds, and the next one ten more seconds, and so on.
I the problem goes a full round, then the first team gets 30 seconds,
and then the next ten seconds, and so on. After the problem completes
a new round, the problem is not answered and no one wins
points. Two points are awarded for correct answers, and one point
for correct explanations. Then come the relays, in which you have
three chances of answering a question and after answering it, or losing
the three chances, you go to the next, and after solving that one
to the next, and so on and so forth. There are four of these problems.
Another part of the Math Olympics is the group competition held
In the national group math olympics, you do several other activ-
on a Saturday morning at Universidad Antonio Nariño in Bogota.
ities like: pass on problems, individual tests, game tournaments,
This year CNG filed teams in all four levels and each team finished
and we even played in a math casino! You get to meet new mathe-
in second place.
matical people since they create new, reorganized teams.
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